By UNIfyThe 85th General Assembly of the Iowa Legislature is well underway and education issues are again receiving a lot of attention. After failing to set allowable growth last year, both the House and the Senate are under pressure to set it now for the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 school years, while administrators struggle to adjust their budgets for the unknown.

The education bill, now in the Senate, was passed out of the House with allowable growth, or supplemental state aid, as it will now be known, set at 2 percent for each of the next two years. The Senate version sets allowable growth/supplemental state aid at 4 percent for both years. Read more about the Senate’s version of the bill.

IBOR Oversight and Transparency BillsWe are excited to see two bills introduced that would create greater oversight and transparency at the Iowa Board of Regents. Senator Jeff Danielson introduced Senate File 407, also known as the Iowa Board of Regents Accountability and Transparency Act.The bill not only establishes a public comment period at each meeting, but requires public forums in all areas of the state, restricts board members from having financial relationships with the institutions they govern, requires at least two public readings for anything that will cost more than $100,000, and requires that all votes be done at in-person meetings, not telephonically.

Representative Anesa Kajtazovich introduced a companion bill in the Iowa House. While Representative Kajtazovich’s bill did not make it out of committee before the end of funnel week, Senator Danielson’s bill was voted on by the State Government Committee and passed. The next step will be to get it to the full Senate for a vote and then hopefully, on to the House.

Speak Up in Support of Senate File 407Now is the most important time for us to speak up and make sure our voices are heard.To start, please go sign our petition. As you know, UNIfy has been pushing for greater transparency and accessibility at the Iowa Board of Regents since our beginning. We believe this is a non-partisan issue and just plain good government policy that is long overdue.

Once you sign the petition, start contacting the Governor’s office and legislators in both the House and Senate and let them know you’d like to see them support this legislation. Call, write and email. Encourage your friends to do the same.

Here are some tips to help make your calls:

Be respectful. Address the Governor and Legislators by their title and be sure to thank them for their service.

Be polite. This is about asking for good government. This is not about pointing out issues the board or any specific member has had, this is about doing better moving forward.

Leave a message. You may not be able to get through by phone on your first try. By all means, keep trying, but when they ask if you’d like to leave a message, say yes! You can be certain they keep track of how many calls they receive on each issue. Many calls on the same issue will help them realize that this is important to Iowans.

Address each email/letter individually and personally. This lets them know that you are appealing to them directly, not just sending a form letter.

Tell them why you think this is important. (You want greater transparency at the Regents institutions, you feel a public comment period is a vital part of keeping the public trust, etc.).

Spread the Word Around IowaIf you have friends or family around the state, share our newsletter (or blog, or website) with them and ask if they will help contact their legislators. This issue affects everyone, not just those in Iowa City, Cedar Falls, and Ames. The Board of Regents spends more than $4.9 billion dollars annually. They should have more transparency and involvement with the public so we can all have a say in how that money is used.